Explore A Hamptons Abode Designed In Lockstep With Its Landscape

As co-founders of Manhattan-based firm Sawyer | Berson, Brian Sawyer and John Berson believe that creating a home in harmony with its environment involves more than designing a building; it considers all aspects of its surroundings. Whether the vocabulary is traditional or modern, every project begins with rigorous research into the site’s history, vernacular context and environmental conditions. “We design with these things in sympathy, synthesizing all elements,” Sawyer says.

And a recently completed project in Water Mill, New York, typifies this precisely. A modernist composition in wood, glass and stone, it takes its cues from the midcentury Fire Island houses of architects Arthur Erickson and Horace Gifford. Broad expanses of bronze-toned steel and glass—vast floor-to-ceiling windows, pivoting doors and transparent stair railings—draw the eye inward, past the living spaces, and onward toward the tidal basin.

Exterior walls of treated Brazilian Ipe wood angle like a camera aperture, coaxing sunlight into the central volume veneered with warm-toned white oak. “Our ideal plan,” Sawyer says, “is to enter the house and go right back out. You should see exactly where you’re going; there’s an immediacy to it.” Adds Berson, “The experience of light and views from the interior is incredibly important to us. We try to avoid double-loaded corridors and other spaces without access to natural light.”

The Water Mill house is elevated 8 feet above grade to meet floodplain regulations, turning a constraint into a defining design opportunity. The approach to the house became a carefully choreographed ascent: An L-shaped path of shot-blasted limestone meanders through an Arcadia of organic silhouettes and textures where rock installations and scrupulously pruned native species appear as striking as sculpture. “It’s similar to a Chinese or Japanese garden aesthetic,” Sawyer notes. “It takes you off center and creates a sense of visual variety.”

The plant palette embraces beloved Long Island varieties, such as Shore juniper, with its icy blue hue, and hay-scented ferns for verdant fringe. Alongside barberry, Japanese maples and crepe myrtles, heat-loving sedums bring bursts of summer color. Continues Sawyer, “It’s about mediating that transition, making the approach to the house—and getting in and out of it—the most elegant and beautiful experience possible.”